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Moose on the Porch Quilts!

My name is Konda Luckau. I have been long arm quilting for many years, and now I am writing pattern books. This started when I fell in love with charm packs a few years ago. I am sure many of you can relate. Most of my patterns are written for charm squares (except you can make your own charm squares out of layer cakes, fat quarters, yardage, or scraps). Check out my books at my website:
http://www.moosequilts.com/

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Machine Binding Tutorial

After picking up quilting as a hobby a dozen years ago, binding was one thing that took me a few years to learn. First I put a separate binding strip on each side of the quilt so there were raw edges on the corners. I only did that once.

Then I folded the back around from the front and top stitched it. (I still do that occasionally, but not too often.)

Then I discovered making a separate continuous binding. Corners were still a problem, but at least they were raw edge. Where the beginning and ending of the binding overlapped, I just showed one end underneath, turned the other end under and slip stitched it closed.

After someone showed me the corners, my bindings started looking MUCH better, but there was still the beginning and end. Another kind quilting soul (fortunately there are many kind quilting souls in the world) showed me how to take the quilt out from under the sewing machine and cut the binding just enough longer to finish off the binding with a straight seam. THEN my bindings finally looked good. You couldn't tell where I stopped and started because it looked like every other seam.

That was really a good method, but using a diagonal seam works even better. The problem was I had trouble figuring out how long the binding tail at the end should be. I used the Fons & Porter method successfully, but I always had to refer to their "cheat sheet" to remember how to do it. Enter another kind quilting soul -- she showed me this method. . . .

I have seen it in a few places now. It is my all time favorite way to bind a quilt. That was the long way to say "Here is a free tutorial on Machine Binding. Enjoy!"

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou....I am sitting here 4 days from Christmas with a quilt that needs binding for a surprise gift for my daughter.

I've never bound anything and I've gone blind looking at EVERYTHING on the internet for the last fortnight wondering how to do this. Usually I just pull the back of the quilt round to the front and hope for the best. Your tutorial has actually given me the confidence to give this a go.

I found your blog from your tutorial on Moda Bake Shop and then came across this binding tutorial. Wow! It was so clear that I only had to come back to it once, instead of coming back after every step.I usually machine stitch the binding to the front, and then hand stitch it to the back. I like that method, and it looks great, but takes so long.This method was super quick and super easy. I think i will adopt it!! Thanks so much!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I have had a quilt sandwich sitting in my sewing room for about a month because I just wasn't sure how to go about binding it! This tutorial was perfect for my beginner abilities!!

I've been quilting for years, and because of your blog have finally felt the urge to machine bind a quilt. I started small with a baby quilt and it couldn't have been easier! Your pictures and instructions are great. PS, I won't tell the Quilt Police about you if you don't tell them about me! lol Thank you so much for this tutorial!